The official recorder's office for ordinances performed according to the doctrine of Christ

Month: November 2015

The posts below are the personal thoughts of the Recorder. These thoughts are his, and may not correspond to the official purpose of recording names of those baptized in the Preserving the Restoration movement. These writings are not vouched for under the auspices of the official logo. You have come to this page having made a conscious decision to click on it. To proceed in reading these things will require from you another decision after having read this explanation. This message divides the Recorder’s responsibility to conduct official business from his personal thoughts about things.

We are going through a period of intense distraction. Before our eyes, we are seeing two great ideologies duking it out as to whether the one, which has lost favor and priesthood in the eyes of God because of its worship of men, thereby practicing abominable priestcrafts before God, or the other, which has always been a scriptural “abomination of desolation” in the eyes of God, should receive our sympathy or allegiance. We are asked to give intense scrutiny to the one or the other as though one side or the other should be absorbing all our time, energy, and resources, and the truth of it will provide salvation for those of the one, and everlasting burnings for the other, when that argument is really between two sides of the same coin. Both arguments are part of that great and abominable church whose founder is the devil.

I propose it is a distraction, and has had its similarities all through history. I propose that the way to God and His salvation has always been narrowly defined, and lies in a straight course before us.

One of the poignant examples in the scriptures which defines how we find the truth we seek, and end up returning to God, or continue floundering here in this toxic Telestial environment is found in the 17th chapter of Luke:

And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee. And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off: And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger. And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: Thy faith hath made thee whole. (Luke 17: 11-19.)

What a magnificent event, filled with profound doctrinal implications and symbolism, and as we will see, truth, before this message is ended. I will not discuss much of what is available to be seen and known within this story; only that which projects the distractions, which make it nigh impossible, for those who don’t see them for what they are, to return and experience the glory of God.

This is the part which the story of the ten lepers records, which is the most profound of all:

There was only one of the healed who, upon seeing he was freed from his disease, “turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks.” Only one returned to Christ. The other nine were still on their way to the priests to receive their washings and anointings, and the deeper meaning of this story can only be understood by answering what Christ then asked: “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”

“The most obvious answer to the questions Christ asked would be, they were doing what He told them to do. But the real answer to His question is that the other nine lepers failed to understand who the real Priest was. They were blinded by what had been taught to them, and what was going on around them, all their lives. Nine went to the priests who performed ceremonies. They went to see the symbol of Christ. But they went without the understanding that the priests officiated merely as a substitute symbol, which pointed to Christ. One, however, came to the True Priest. Only one understood, and did exactly as Christ directed. He alone came to the True Priest.”

Christ tells us through another comment how almost resigned He was (is) of how few will recognize Him, when He said: “There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.” The others went to see the symbol of Christ, to become ceremonially clean, seeking comfort from the symbols and ceremonies. Only one returned to be in fact, cleansed by the Master, Himself, and as a consequence receive the Master’s pronouncement, “Arise, go thy way: Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Christ’s, personal declaration to a man is more important than any other party’s self proclaiming argument as to the correctness of their views, and that declaration from Him will never be found by siding with abomination in whatever form it takes.

Only the rare person realizes where light and truth, which is the glory of God, can be found. For all the rest there is an abundance of rites, ordinances, observances, rituals, arguments, symbols and, yes, even law. All these may point to the real thing, but they are not the real thing itself. Therefore we find still that “there are not found that return to give glory to God, save [a few].”

“We are being tested to determine whether or not we can be blinded by traditions, presumptions, trappings, and priestcrafts; or if we can see through those things to find the Son of God.” And it is so easy to put our effort where it will not yield us the desire we seek.